Baseball Loses Final Home Games

By Thomas Kettlerand Farhan ZaidiStaff Reporters

The baseball team finished its home season on a somber note Saturday
afternoon by losing both doubleheader games to the Suffolk University Rams,
6­2 and 4­2. These losses made the team 7­21 overall and 3­9 in the Eastern
Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The first game started quickly as both teams scored in the first inning.
The Engineers tied the score in the bottom half when right fielder Baldemar
Mejia '98 led off with a single. After one out, he advanced to second on a
grounder and scored on a triple by DH Rob Lepard '95.

Suffolk scored two more runs in the second. After one out, Mike
DeBenedictis singled. After that, Ramon Nunez singled and both scored on
Chris Anderson's triple.

Neither team scored runs until the sixth when the Rams got three
insurance runs. Then, Mark Kelleher singled and advanced to second on a
passed ball by Engineer catcher Edward Kohler '95. He scored on
DeBenedictis' double, with DeBenedictis advancing to third on a grounder to
the second basemen for the first out.

After a strikeout, MIT could have avoided any more bloodletting on Marc
Swirbalus' grounder to the shortstop. But DeBenedictis scored and Swirbalus
went to third when Heriberto Rivas '97 threw the ball into right field. The
Engineers' second passed ball of the inning scored Swirbalus.

MIT scored its final run in the bottom half of the seventh. Second
baseman Craig Zimmerman '96 opened with a walk. Pinch hitter Jason Mueller
'95 followed with another walk, and Rivas singled to load the bases.
Mejia's sacrifice fly scored Zimmerman, but a strikeout and a pop­up ended
the game short of an MIT win.

The Rams led the Engineers in hits, 10 to six. MIT helped Suffolk by
making three errors, three wild pitches and two passed balls.

Engineers fall short again

In the second match, the Engineers did not do much better as three­hit
pitching by Suffolk's Steve Loud and Dennis Luti along with an inconsistent
strike zone by the plate umpire hurt MIT in the 4­2 loss.

MIT got its only lead for the day in the first inning by scoring both of
its runs. With one out, CF Stephen Vetere '97 singled. 3B Andrew Katz '96
then doubled, scoring Vetere. A wild pitch advanced Katz to third who then
scored on Lepard's groundout.

The Rams tied the score in the fifth. Swirbalus walked to lead the
inning. Chris Anderson then singled. Suffolk sacrificed both runners to
second and third. After a groundout scored Swirbalus, Darwin Hernandez
singled to score Anderson.

The Rams took the lead in the sixth with DeBenedictis scoring on a
Swirbalus' single. Nunez later scored on a groundout by Anderson.

"I thought we did a very good job," O'Brien said. "We ended up losing
the game on a bloop to right field. [MIT pitcher Dan Whitalec '97] jammed
[Swirbalus] and instead of a pop up to the first baseman, it's the
game­winning hit."

Win over Curry

The losses follow a hard-played win against Curry College at Briggs
Field on Thursday. Behind a spectacular pitching effort by Steve Brunelli
Ś96 pushed its record up to 7­18 for the season with the 6­4 win. Brunelli
went the full nine innings, striking out 13 and allowing just six hits.

Curry College struck first, going up 2­0 in the top of the second
inning. After Brunelli issued back­to­back walks to load the bases with one
out, LF Ed Hagerty stroked a base hit, bringing in two runs. Brunelli was
then able to prevent any further damage by retiring the next two batters on
a strikeout and a lazy pop out to first base.

Curry College pitcher Carl Bussey seemed to be in a rhythm in the early
innings, at one point retiring seven straight batters after giving up a
single to Katz '95 in the first inning. But the Engineers were able to put
together a three­hit, two­run rally in the fourth. Duane Stevens '98 and
Nicky Botra each laced RBI singles to tie the game at 2.

After being retired in order in the fifth, MIT came back and scored
three more runs in the sixth inning to take a 5­2 lead. Katz and Lepard led
off the inning with back­to­back singles, putting men at first and third
with no out. The next batter, Jay Grabeklis '95, fought off several pitches
and battled to a full count before ripping a line drive single to left to
bring in the go­ahead run. The Engineers added two more runs on an RBI
single by Botra and an RBI double by Jeff Kyle.

Meanwhile, Brunelli was outstanding through the middle innings, giving
up just one hit in the fourth through eighth innings. The Engineers went on
to add an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by
Grabeklis. Curry College threatened in the top of the ninth, scoring twice
on back­to­back pinch­hit triples and a sacrifice fly, but Brunelli was
able to retire the visitors' clean­up hitter, Mike Maruso, to end the
game.

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